52 Providence Road

Your First house is NEVER the house that you love the best. Well that's what I always think anyhow. Your second house, the home you perhaps plan for in a more considered and financially robust way, is often the one you have more affection for, even though you may move on to bigger and better things. In my case this is true. My tiny first home on Providence Road was an impulse buy in 1988, it got me on the housing ladder in the "credit crunch", it led me to the lovely terrace house in Wynyard Road in Hillsborough before Chris and I finally bought out first home together here in Wales When we called in to see Mike and Bev on Sunday, they gave me a clipping from the Sheffield Star, detailing the sale of my first home.http://www.thinkproperty.com/property/14656024 I hadn't thought about Providence Road in a long time, so today when I was slogging away in the allotment (tidying the beds for tomorrow's open day) my thoughts got to wandering into the direction of no 52. I bought the house when I was still a student nurse, twenty years ago and I remember that I was on placement on South 6 at Lodge Moor Hospital, which was a paediatric ward at the time the sale want through. The house cost 29,000 pounds and was originally on sale for 26,000!!!!!! Typically of Sheffield, I remember that a small bidding "war" ensured me clinching the deal. That little house witnessed a very happy time in my life.For the very first time I felt totally independent. I had a full and varied social life, many friends and an exciting job,I also had my own front door behind which I could feel safe and secure. Joan and Betty turned up in the garden to be adopted, Girlfriend Jane designed and helped make the garden (which sparked my interest in gardening) and for the first time I trolled the antique and junk shops of Walkley, in search of my own eclectic design style. It was a time of firsts. Providence Road, saw me coming out as gay, it was the constant in my career move into Spinal Injuries and provided me with the backdrop for the re bonding of a somewhat difficult relationship with my father a year before he died.I guess I am lucky to have nothing but positive memories of a simple two up, two down in Walkley.

The weather looks a bit ropey for the allotment open tomorrow, but I guess that even if there is torrential rainfall and no one turns up, at least I will have a score of cakes and a tidy field to show for it all. Mrs Jones sent over a fruit cake this afternoon in way of an apology for not coming tomorrow ( she had minor eye surgery done today) and Flower show secretary Slyvia is sending me one of her coffee bakes later, so there will be plenty of food available. The only small fly in the ointment is that Chris is serving the cakes, so I suspect it will be a"one for you and two for me" sort of thing going on.

Sad news flying around the village is that the missing man has been found dead on the Gop...such a shame.